this article should have been posted last night
Why I Don't Drink
21–30 of 74 posts
Re: Why I Don't Drink
#22Earlier quoted context omitted.
The author's not telling you not to drink, he's just explaining why he doesn't. It's OK for some of those reasons to be against specific kinds of drinking he doesn't want to engage in.
None of his points explain even from a personal perspective why he doesn't drink, though. Which of his bullet points explain the pros and cons of wine with dinner vs. not having wine with dinner?
He's not making an argument about nuanced tradeoffs, though. He's saying that he gets no benefit ("It makes me feel bleh", "Alcohol does not increase my enjoyment of activities") and that there are some drawbacks for him ("It dumbs you down", "It's expensive"). You might have different personal experiences with alcohol, but you can't deny the author his.
Re: Why I Don't Drink
#23I'm really with the author here. I don't drink much, and people usually ask me why when I'm out. I just don't find it all that enjoyable most of the time, to be honest.
also, there's this: >There is a longer list of things I'd rather spend $100 on
I just want to take a moment to suggest this as an alternative. http://www.amazon.com/Parker-Sonnet-Original-Matte-Fountain/...
Re: Why I Don't Drink
#24I empathize with this article. I rarely drink, I get drunk about a half a dozen times a year, and shifting my social life away from bars and restaurants has enabled me to afford a lifestyle I otherwise couldn't have.
I put every penny I saved from my former bar oriented social life into a savings account, and in two years I put over $65k away, which turned into seed money for my own startup.
This is a point of pride for me, and overall has enriched my life in ways social drinking never could have.
I've grown distant from certain friends because of it, and I get questions nearly everytime I do go out and refuse a drink. These things are not important to me, and those people less so.
Moral of the story is, people should live their lives how they see fit, and that is for both drinkers and non drinkers alike.
Re: Why I Don't Drink
#25I just don't like the taste of alcoholic beverages, and therefore I don't drink them.
If beer didn't have alcohol, I wouldn't drink it. It's the least awful alcoholic drink I've found.
Re: Why I Don't Drink
#26Earlier quoted context omitted.
None of his points explain even from a personal perspective why he doesn't drink, though. Which of his bullet points explain the pros and cons of wine with dinner vs. not having wine with dinner?
"It is expensive." is definitely relevant. If my fiancee and I go out for dinner and we each have a couple of drinks, the tab at least doubles.
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Re: Why I Don't Drink
#27> Almost everyone will at some point ask me why I don't drink, which is fair considering it's engrained into human society. There should be no need to explain why you don't drink. Period. There's nothing wrong with not drinking and there's nothing weird about not drinking. If people are asking with any sort of condescension, you are probably spending time with the wrong people.
I don't drink. Most people think it's unusual or weird.
Re: Why I Don't Drink
#28This feels like a very "American" article [1], in the way it frames the discussion. The intro suggests the author has a policy of not drinking at all (or only every few months), but most of the bullet points only apply to why you shouldn't binge-drink. I did not find anything in this article that applied to normal drinking. If you drink a glass of wine with lunch, and one or two with dinner, as a typical southern Eur…
This feels like a very "European" comment.
Really the only thing you could nitpick is in points 7 and 9, because that's where he makes generalizations about alcohol's effects on others. Near as I can tell, the rest of the list is primarily about how it affects him as an individual. As far as alcohol being a depressant, that's pretty well established by now. I'm just not sure what exactly screams "American" about this article to you. It seems you're generalizing a lot of things about Americans just as you claim he's generalizing a lot of things about alcohol. Just not really sure what point you're getting at.
Re: Why I Don't Drink
#29Earlier quoted context omitted.
The author's not telling you not to drink, he's just explaining why he doesn't. It's OK for some of those reasons to be against specific kinds of drinking he doesn't want to engage in.
None of his points explain even from a personal perspective why he doesn't drink, though. Which of his bullet points explain the pros and cons of wine with dinner vs. not having wine with dinner?
> None of his points explain even from a personal perspective why he doesn't drin
Doesn't it?
[1] > It makes me feel bleh.
Heck I would stop there. "Why don't you like ham and cheese sandwiches?" "It makes me feel bleh...". Ok case closed.
[2] > Alcohol does not increase my enjoyment of activities.
That is a response to the American cultural expectation perhaps. "You will have more fun when you drink". Well and he doesn't seem to.
Neither do I, actually, I am just as introverted and awkward as when sober. But I do like the taste of some beers and wines. So I drink those once in a while.
[3] > It is expensive.
I don't know, we already have 3 good reasons. Alcohol in US _is_ ridiculously expensive due to taxes and regulations. Serve it in a bar at a social scene and it can set you back hundreds of dollars per session as he said.
On a meta level, I guess, even discussing or thinking about seems odd. It is his personal preference, why does he need to explain himself? The fact that he does, and that we are using so many words to talk about it, also tells something interesting about how drinking culture is part of the culture and it is different perhaps countries, and that people feel strongly about it in one way or another.
Re: Why I Don't Drink
#30> Almost everyone will at some point ask me why I don't drink, which is fair considering it's engrained into human society. There should be no need to explain why you don't drink. Period. There's nothing wrong with not drinking and there's nothing weird about not drinking. If people are asking with any sort of condescension, you are probably spending time with the wrong people.
asking why someone doesn't drink doesn't imply condescension
It is about the context. Given that it probably happens when everyone else is intoxicated slightly, it probably doesn't seem condescending to the person asking, they are just having fun, being warm and friendly but since he doesn't drink they might seem like assholes. See his last point on that.